Henry C. Carey

Writer and Muckracker

The son of an Irish immigrant, Henry Carey was a nineteenth-century economist, debater and political muckraker. He wrote on economics and tariffs, authoring such works as Harmony of Interest and Principles of Political Economy, and headed the American Philosophical Society.

Carey lived in Alcazar, just two buildings from the Camden & Amboy railroad through Burlington. He hated the concept of business monopolies, and wrote a series of letters against the monopoly of the Camden & Amboy beginning in the late 1840's.

When Burlington was the site of a devastating railroad accident in 1855, Carey authored essays and pamphlets revealing that the Camden and Amboy was not following ethical management and operation practices - for example, schedules.